Surprisingly, or perhaps not, the media seem to be avoiding a rather obvious question:

Under what authority is President Obama claiming to be able to fly into Syria to attack NI-ISIS?

You might have noted a few, well, probing flights recently outlined by media of Russian incursions into U.S. and NATO qualified defense zone airspace. Yet interestingly no-one seems to be connecting the dots between the Russian pokes, and Obama’s proclaimed Syrian strategy. Remember, Russia is an ally the “state of” Syria, and Bashir Assad.
The U.S. State Department, and the U.S. White House team, have been very careful to note they will not be coordinating any offensive NI-ISIS engagements with Iran or Syria.
For all current intents and purposes the matter with Iran is a non-issue, however the matter with Syria is an entirely divergent situation altogether.
As far as we can tell there is no precedent for hostile U.S. action into the sovereign territory of another nation, even to target terror threats, without a specific agreement in hand before the action. (more…)

Shepard Smith was supposed to interview Josh Earnest today, but some guy who is still a journalist and looks remarkably like Shep Smith showed up and replaced him.
Watch this, and stay with it…. the last minute is well, pretty awesome.

Smith earned an extra umbrella for his pineapple tonight.

Washington DC thinks we are stupid, they really do.  The professional political class has yet to grasp the understanding that “WWW” as a prefix in the internet stands for “World Wide Web”.   We are quite capable of connecting, collecting and digesting information directly from the heart of the issues being debated.
Despite all the DC pontifications, obfuscations, and professional talking points to the contrary, we know in Syria there are two options, support Bashir Assad or support radical Islamists, that’s it.   There is no mysterious “moderate” third option; the “rebels” are radical islamists.
President Obama and  Republican Senator John McCain are making the same argument in 2014 toward Syria they both made in 2011 toward Libya.   2014’s Secretary of State, John Kerry, is merely repeating the 2011 meme sold by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – the difference is within the audience.

In Libya 2011 there were two options, support Moamuar Kaddafi, or support radical Islamists under the nom de plume “rebels“.   The White House supported the “rebels“, Kaddafi was killed, and as a consequence right now in Libya chaos reigns as the islamists, now collected under the banner “Libyan Dawn”, are destroying the country.
(more…)

It should be remembered that John McCain hired a known paid advocate for Syria, Elizabeth O’Bagy, as part of his staff after she was fired by The Institute For The Study of War for lying about her professional credentials.   A year ago we wrote:

 … So knowing she’s a liar, knowing that she’s in bed with the “rebels”, that she put out conflicting accounts, that she whitewashed the “rebels” into a more “moderate” force, this woman is worthy, according to John McCain, of being hired to his staff.   This is so unbelievable, it makes one think that there is some greater personal underlying reason operating here….

As you review this article it’s wise to keep in mind that Elizabeth O’Bagy was the one who set up the John McCain visit to Syria.

(Via Breitbart) Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and his aides swear the Syrian “rebels” he was pictured last year with weren’t ISIS members or supporters, and the mainstream media is by and large buying the 2008 GOP presidential nominee’s story.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has endured brutal criticism—media fact checkers, reporters, and political figures have shredded him—for questioning just who McCain posed with.
But a closer look at the situation tells perhaps a different story than McCain’s office or the mainstream media have pushed. (more…)

We had a strong suspicion Denis McDonough and Valerie Jarrett selected General John Allen (retired) for the ISIS campaign, because the White House knew Allen could be leveraged and easily controlled. The embarrassing files on Allen (retained for such a purpose) allow the administration to strong-arm compliance.

President Obama appears to have a singular goal in Syria, remove Bashir Assad.

Combating Sunni ISIS is not an objective President Obama, or Recep Erdogan, would EVER support or be comfortable with.

(Wall Street Journal)  The president hasn’t yet given the green light for an attack on Islamic State militants in Syria, but the U.S. military campaign against the group there is being designed to allow President Barack Obama to exert a high degree of personal control–going so far as to require that the military obtain presidential signoff for strikes.
The requirements for the strikes will be far more stringent than those targeting Islamic State in Iraq, at least at first. U.S. officials say it is an attempt to limit the threat the U.S. could be dragged more deeply into the Syrian civil war. (more…)

AUSTRALIA – POLICE say co-ordinated raids on homes across Brisbane’s south and in Sydney this morning were in response to threats of random attacks on members of the public, including the possible beheading of a random member of the public on a city street and mass shootings.
Fifteen people have been detained and one person charged with terrorism offences, following pre-dawn raids across Sydney and Brisbane, as part of a pre-emptive strike amid fears a suspected terror cell was close to launching an attack.
A Sydney court heard this afternoon that a man arrested during today’s raids was plotting a public execution on Sydney streets that was designed to horrify the community.
Omarjan Azari, 22, faced court on one count of committing an act in preparation or planning for a terrorist act.
Court documents show Azari is accused of conspiring with Mohammad Baryalei, who is known to have ­recruited Australians to fight with Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, including wanted terrorists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar. (more…)

The House of Representatives just voted to specifically arm al-Qaeda.   Against the alternative of ISIS, al-Qaeda are the “moderates” in Syria;  John Boehner just voted to fund and support al-Qaeda.  This was easily identified in July 2012.

WASHINGTON DC – The House voted Wednesday to grant President Obama authority to train and arm moderate Syrian rebels waging war against Islamic extremists.

Despite vocal opposition from both war-weary liberals and defense hawks who feel the Syria plan should include more robust steps, a bipartisan coalition voted 273-156 to back Obama’s plan to give military aid to vetted members of the Free Syrian Army.
The Syria language was considered as an amendment to a stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown on Oct. 1. (read more)

Just in case anyone was fuzzy on the alliances here, or the motivations of Turkey.  Qatar, under pressure from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Gulf Council to stop the terror support, exiled the first group of Muslim Brotherhood extremists.  Erdogan, Obama’s NATO BFF, lays down the red carpet welcome….

TURKEY– Turkey would welcome senior figures from Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood after they were asked to leave Qatar under pressure from other Gulf Arab states, Turkish media quoted President Tayyip Erdogan as saying late on Monday.

A senior Brotherhood official based in London said on Saturday that Qatar had asked seven senior figures from the movement to leave the country after its neighbors pressed it to stop backing the Islamists.
Senior Brotherhood figures would be welcome to come to Turkey if they wished to do so, Turkish television stations quoted Erdogan as telling reporters on his plane back from an official visit to Qatar on Monday.
Qatar and Turkey were the only regional countries to back the Brotherhood after Egypt’s army toppled Islamist President Mohammad Mursi last year following mass protests against him. (more…)

While the Obama administration fawn praise upon Qatar, quite the opposite is happening from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and UAE who are turning up the heat on the Qatari willful blindness to extremist Islamists.
Egypt’s Fattah El-Sisi is like a wolverine on the hunt of the Muslim Brotherhood. In a surprisingly honest article from the Associated Press, they outline not only the current round of Brotherhood members leaving, but also the Al Jazeera reporters and another possible 120 extremists being expelled. In the irony of the article note the direction of flight for the extremists: Malaysia, Turkey and, wait for it, Great Britain.
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt will hunt down exiled Muslim Brotherhood leaders and seek their arrest, a top official said Sunday, after Qatar ordered them to leave its territory despite initially hosting group members following the ouster of Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi last year.
The tiny Gulf nation’s expulsion of the Brotherhood, branded a terrorist organization by Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, signals it is moving to mend a diplomatic rift triggered by its support of the group. Analysts described the move as a political victory for Egypt’s current leadership.
Minister of Interior Mohammed Ibrahim said that Qatari authorities gave Brotherhood leaders one month to leave the country, and reporters for the Doha-based Al-Jazeera Egypt channel two months to leave. It was not immediately possible to confirm the ultimatum with Qatari officials, who rarely comment on the issue. (more…)

We thought this was going to be the conversation between Egypt’s Fatah el-Sisi and John Kerry because our ongoing research into the backchannel sources reflected the probability.  It appears, yet again, Occam’s razor proves correct.  In the article below AhramOnline reports El-Sisi warned Kerry not to focus merely on ISIS but all terror groups need to be addressed.
Fatah El-Sisi knows President Obama’s heart is not in the mission to defeat NI-ISIS, because El-Sisi knows young Obama in his 20’s was smitten with the Romance of the Mujahedeen, and then became disillusioned when U.S. policy shifted and made them the al-Qaeda enemy they became years later.   El-Sisi has exceptionally clear eyes – he understands the sympathy President Obama carries to the Sunni tribe, NI-ISIS.
Egypt is also standing as the strongest Muslim nation in condemnation of the NI-ISIS recent beheadings’.  Additionally El-Sisi has convinced the Arab Council to quietly threaten Qatar for their insufferable support of terror networks.  This has led to six “leaders” of the Muslim Brotherhood leaving Qatar – and now El-Sisi asking Interpol to track them down. 

EGYPT – Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has stressed the importance of an international coalition to combat not only Islamic State but also all terrorist groups in the Middle East and Africa.
He made the comments during a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.
The US is taking the lead in an international coalition aimed at defeating Islamist extremists spreading across parts of Iraq and Syria. Militants from the so-called Islamic State have so far murdered thousands and declared a Muslim caliphate.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Anne Patterson also attended the meeting at the presidential palace in Cairo. (more…)